About This Project

This was a really exciting project to work on. The client had commissioned an audacious plan to transform his traditional Georgian townhouse into a cool New York style loft, complete with double-height glass extension, reclaimed brick and industrial styling.

Clearly, he needed a New York-inspired garden to go with it!

My design for the garden was based on the New York High Line, the disused railway that has been so spectacularly transformed into an urban park.

At the centre of my design was an indirect path: a modern-day ‘Yellow Brick Road’, constructed out of linear, directional concrete plank paving. Design details were borrowed from the High Line, such as the bleeding of the planting into the edges of the paving, to suggest Nature taking over a disused industrial site.

The journey through the garden space was punctuated by a number of stopping zones where the client could pause and sit, including a peaceful courtyard at the lower level, with an illuminated bench and tiered planting, and a generous dining terrace for outdoor cooking.

Tall, bold panels of rusted Corten steel screened off the end of the garden, where the path led to a sheltered sunken garden for party gatherings, complete with enveloping raised planting and a Corten steel fire-pit.

The planting was kept very simple, with up-lit multi-stemmed trees punctuating a planting scheme of modern grasses and perennials.

Render Images supplied by Tonic Architecture